About

The Writing Platform is a website and programme of live events dedicated to arming writers with digital knowledge.

The website is a free online resource for writers and poets­ – whether they are emerging or established, traditionally published, self-published ­or not yet published – who are looking for neutral and best practice information about writing in a digital age in order to inform their practice and career choices. We also run an annual fair and conference for writers.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a highly successful Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, the university has a global outlook, some 44,000 students, including 6000 from overseas, and an annual budget of more than AU$872 million.

Unique to QUT is the Bachelor of Creative Industries, which equips graduates with diverse knowledge, creativity and professional skills across a range of industries and practice. Located in the Creative Industries Precinct, alongside research centres and creative enterprises, the QUT Creative Industries Faculty is not only training the creative workforce, but working with industry and government to grow the sector.

The Creative Industries Faculty’s offers specialist degrees across a range of creative study areas include the Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Entertainment Industries, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Media and Communication degrees. Staff and students of the Faculty are noted for pushing disciplinary boundaries and many are producing bold experimental work in the digital and live domains. Emphasising practice-led research has resulted in national and international recognition for the Faculty, and QUT is changing and evolving the modes of creative communication through its research.

Bath Spa University (BSU) is a leading university for creativity, culture, enterprise and education. Based in the world heritage city of Bath, ithosts one of the UK’s leading centres for teaching creative writing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Creative Writing Department, within the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries, recently appointed 10 new teaching and research professors — all highly acclaimed in their creative fields — to join a distinguished team of practitioner researchers. Two of these appointments, Kate Pullinger and Naomi Alderman, reflect the vital role and priority BSU has given to questions of writing and digital technology, as well as the digital future of the writing industry more generally.

Digital technologies are transforming reading, publishing and bookselling, creating multiple opportunities for writers interested in experimentation and innovation. Within a few years, all emerging writers will be expected to be engaged with new forms as well as new ways of connecting with audiences. But what happens to literature once it moves off the page and into a web-browser, onto tablets, mobiles and other devices? As the digital and physical merge, what new territories will literature explore? At Bath Spa University, as well as focusing on excellence in creative writing across all genres, digital forms are embedded in the creative writing curriculum from undergraduate through MA and PhD level.

BSU has recently invested 26 million pounds in digital media labs; these labs will be ready for use in 2014. As a recent recipient of the EU Commission’s ‘HR Excellence in Research’ award, the University Research Strategy aims to develop and sustain the culture of research and scholarship across the institution and its national and international profile in key areas such as creative writing.